Arusha, May 30th, 2000 (FH) -
The French defence lawyer for genocide suspect Ignace Bagilishema
on Tuesday urged judges of the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda (ICTR) to order disclosure of a sealed document on the
death of Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana.

"Nothing can justify this document being
concealed from the Court and from the defence," argued François
Roux, saying he believed it could be vital to his defence
strategy. Roux said the shooting down of Habyarimana's 'plane,
which served as a trigger for the 1994 genocide, was referred to
specifically in his client's indictment.

He also told the court that prosecution
reluctance to have the document released was an extra reason why
the judges should grant his request. "When I see such
vehement opposition from the prosecution, my good sense tells me
it is something likely to damage their case. And if that is so,
it is likely to be of help to the defence," Roux told the
court.

Roux said that, according to press reports,
the document implicated the Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF)
in the shooting down of the Hutu president's 'plane on April 6th,
1994. "It has been insinuated for a long time that it was
rather Hutu extremists who downed the plane to justify the
genocide, which had been planned in advance," Roux told the
court. "Now, if it emerges from this document that the plane
was shot down by the RPF, which waged war in Rwanda to take power
by force, then that considerably changes the analysis of what
happened, and of the role played by my client."

He said such evidence could show that "Bagilishema
was the victim of this attack, not one of its instigators".
Bagilishema was mayor of Mabanza, in the Kibuye prefecture of
western Rwanda, from February 1980 to July 1994. The prosecution
says he played a leading role in the massacre of Tutsis who fled
to the region during the genocide that took place from April to
July 1994.

But the defence says attacks on Mabanza
commune were led by outsiders and that Bagilishema did not have
the means to counter them. Bagilishema says he asked for military
reinforcements, but they were not sent.

On April 7th this year the ICTR's South
African president Navanethem Pillay said she had received a UN
memorandum concerning the 1994 'plane crash that killed
Habyarimana, and had put it under seal.

"Having been made aware that the document
related to issues which might in future be raised before a Trial
Chamber," she said in a press release, "and after
consultation with the other judges, I directed that [...] the
document be placed under seal in the President's Chambers
immediately upon arrival. Neither I nor any of the other judges
has read the document."

Judge Pillay said the document was a 3-page
memorandum prepared by former ICTR prosecution investigator
Michael Hourigan, "on his own initiative. At the time he
wrote it, Mr. Hourigan was working for the Office of Internal
Oversight Services (OIOS). The memo was therefore an internal and
confidential matter for the OIOS and was not sent to the ICTR."

The document was brought to light after it was
leaked to Canadian newspaper the National Post earlier this year.
According to the National Post, it shows that the UN received
information in 1997 that Tutsi members of the current Rwandan
regime and a foreign government may have been behind the shooting
down of Habyarimana's 'plane.

Pillay said that the UN in New York had sent
the document to the ICTR "so that if this matter is raised
before the Tribunal, the appropriate Trial Chamber could decide
if the document is relevant for the defence of any of the cases
on which the attorneys are working and, if so, determine under
what circumstances and conditions the document can be released."

Bagilishema's lawyer argued that it was
therefore up to the judges and not the prosecution to turn the
document over. After that, and depending its contents, the
defence could introduce a motion asking the prosecution to
disclose other relevant documents.

However, Tanzanian prosecutor Wallace Kapaya
said the defence had failed to prove any direct link between the
document and his client's case. "They say they need to know
what the document says, but that can't be construed in a vacuum,"
Kapaya told the court. "You must have a reason."

He said neither of the parties knew what was
in the document and that the defence was therefore "on a
kind of fishing expedition". But Roux argued he could not be
more specific about his reasons without seeing the contents of
the document.

Several other ICTR detainees are also
demanding that the Tribunal release the documents on the crash
andformer mayor of Taba Jeanhis motion on Friday/or open an
investigation. These include former military leaders Gratien
Kabiligi and Aloys Ntabakuze, -Paul Akayesu and former politician
Joseph Nzirorera, who is expected to present .

***

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